Life in the crowded slow lane

I just returned from a fantastic trip to India and boy, was it fun ! Everytime I head home its a great few weeks of meeting umpteen relatives and eating by the cartloads and meeting old friends and spending time just talking with all and sundry. This time the trip was even more special because I had decided to hang up my bachelor boots and get married. So it was twice the number of relatives(old and new) and much more eating, not to mention a whole lot of travelling. It was a whirlwind trip where I barely got to spend time at home but was just moving from place to place. India has changed quite a bit and it was fun.

One thing that stuck me as soon as I landed inIndia is the fact that there is more money changing hands and there are much more middle and upper class people than there were before. Prices of essential items have shot up and the luxury brands of the world whichin the past, one could either drool at, or travel abroad and pay ridiculous amounts of import duty to own, are now easily available in most metros. Chennai has much more upscale shops and many more buyers but the place refuses to get cleaned up. This year the monsoons have been unusually very active and the roads were all damaged and slushy. How I wish the tax revenue is ploughed back into improving the infrastructure in an efficient manner :(

Coimbatore, my hometown has way more two-wheelers than before and also much more upscale hangouts to boot. More and more mansions of the past are being converted to apartment complexes which, while increasing the number of people in the area, also seems to be affecting the roadscape in a negative manner.

Nagercoil, a small town at the southern tip of the country, where my wife comes from was a town trying to stay small but grappling with growing pains. The countryside was picturesque though and the wedding was a grand affair.

Jobs are all over the place, expecially in the IT area and call centers seem to be mushrooming all over the country. Newspapers are filled with IT job openings and more and more MNCs seem to be setting up development (not testing) centers in the country. All this bodes well in the short-term for a nation filled with colleges with IT programs. In the long run, indigineous manufacturing and R&D should be encouraged to make sure the boom does not go bust.

In all, as my friend indicated in one of our discussion fora, things have never been more inviting for software engineers to march back home. Will we do it, setting aside our egos and American materialism, remains the big question.